What is Salvation?

The book Follow Me, by David Platt,  starts off by telling a story about a Muslim girl who asked him how she could become a Christian knowing that she would be beaten and killed by her family if she does. Platt states there is two options he could have offered her. First option is he could tell her it is easy to be a Christian, just believe Jesus is the Christ and repeat a simple prayer and she will be saved, or he could tell her the truth by telling her that in the Gospel God calls us all to die. Die to life, family, friends, and future, and that in dying, to live. To live in Jesus.

Anytime someone asked Jesus how they can be saved, or how they could become his disciple, he would say things like this: "If anyone is going to follow me he must deny himself." Mt 19 Jesus tells the story of a rich young ruler who asked how he can know for sure if he is saved. Jesus told him to follow the commands.  The Ruler said that he does, Jesus then says then sell everything you own and follow me. Another man asked how he could be a disciple of Jesus and Jesus answered, I have nowhere to lie down at night, you sure you want to follow me? Yet another time he told a man to follow him, the man replied let me bury my dad first, meaning that he had not yet died but his health is failing. Jesus lovingly replied, let the dead bury their own, in order to follow me, one must hate his family.

Does Jesus really mean to stop caring about your family in order to be a real Christian? No. Most of these stories were told in a parable which were stories that made you ask what he meant if you really wanted to know. But since we can't really ask him what exactly he meant, we can assume. We assume, that he was merely stating the importance of what is expected. To deny oneself. To set our own priorities aside for the sake of the Kingdom.

Now today churches are filled with Christians that seem content to have casual association with Christ while giving nominal adherence to Christianity. People considering themselves to be Christians live in a world of self: protect, comfort, care for yourself. What Jesus was saying was "slay yourself". To Jesus, following him meant giving up our own little world, to us it means praying a prayer and "inviting Jesus into our world."

I "invited" Christ into my life when I was 8 years old after the pastor was talking about hell. I knew I did not want to go there so I asked my parents how I could go to heaven. They did what their pastor told them to do, and most likely your pastor would have told them to do.  They led me in a prayer asking Christ to cleanse my heart and enter my life.

The Bible never mentions such a prayer. It should concern us that of all the times Jesus was asked how to be saved, he never once said to kneel down and pray that he will enter our hearts or just to invite him into our lives.

This type of understanding allows people who are not saved, believe that they are. 

There is a verse in Matthew 7 that most people do not understand. It comes right at the end of Jesus' most famous message known as the sermon on the mount. He is teaching this to his disciples, which tells us this is directed at those who believe in him. Mt 7:21 says “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Another verse that gets taught the wrong way is in the same chapter, 7:13, so he's talking to the same people, believers. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it." I was always led to believe that the wide gate symbolized non-believers and the narrow gate was for believers. But in this type of context, and as Platt states, both of these gates are for believers. You can float through this life clinging to that prayer you said asking Christ into your life, or you can die to yourself and take the narrow path that will be difficult, yet very rewarding.

So what is it that makes us truly saved?   There are signs around our youth room at church that state, "Those who love God, Worship God." This does not mean that our salvation is relying on our works, but that our works are a result of our love for Him. We also rely on God's grace to allow Him to forget about our past. We also must have a heart of repentance, willing to turn from whatever keeps us from walking with Him.

Jesus says many believe in him, including the demons, but only those who obey his commands will enter the kingdom

This post was the message for our youth ministry, and was taken directly out of the book, Follow Me, which can be purchased here: http://www.amazon.com/Follow-Me-Call-Die-Live/dp/1414373287/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427737926&sr=8-1&keywords=follow+me+platt

What is Faith Pt 2

God is often referred to as Father. He is not a reflection of our earthly fathers, he is the perfection of our earthly father.

Because he is the perfect father is why he wants to hear our desires it's why he wants to give us the best life possible. He gives because he enjoys giving.

I love how Tim Hawkins displays the idea of a earthly father. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLOsRlI-eKE 

As a perfect father, he does not give his children all the ask for. He knows that most of what we desire is not good for us and some can be deadly to our spiritual lives. Because he is a perfect father we need to know we can trust him even when we don't understand what he's doing. Our lives provide room for lots of disappointments. We need to be able to distinguish between gods promises and our own expectations. "There are many things that God has not promised that we may wish he had. God has not promised to keep bad things from happening to us, he has not promised to heal every illness, he has not promised to reverse the consequence of sin, yet there are occasions when God intervenes and does these things. Why? Because he is a perfect father who loves to give good gifts to his children.

Hebrews 4:14  Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to the confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time..

Later in Hebrews  it states "let us approach the throne with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

He experienced temptation at the hands of Satan him

He was rejected by both friends and family members

He could be viewed as a failure because he saw everything he had worked for crumble down around himself

He knew fear when he spent the night in Gethsemene dreading the events of the next day

His friends abandoned him when he needed them the most

He faced his death alone

He will never respond with "I can't believe that you..." Or "what is your problem" he knows he need for mercy from experience.

Grace is the strength to endure and the ability to carry on. He has not promised to deliver us from our circumstances, whatever they may be, but he has promised to deliver us through our circumstances. We have the freedom to ask God to change our circumstances and we can count on him for the grace to endure them in the meantime.

Here's what we know about faith.

Faith must always have an object. If I told you I was going to come over to your house for dinner, the object of your faith would be me. If you were told to buy a particular bar of soap due to its ability to stop acne in its tracks, the object of your faith would be the soap. The object of your faith is the who or what you believe in.

Faith must also have content. When you believe in a product, you believe it will do what it claim it can do, like erase acne. And if you believe in a person , you believe they are trustworthy and will do what they claim they will do. the content of faith is what a person or product claim they can do. It is the what you believe in.

Saving Faith has a very specific object, Christ,  and a very specific content, promises. Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father,  except through me", making Him the object of our faith. As for the content, Paul says in Romans 10,  ⁹ If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  The promise of salvation. If we believe, if we confess. we will be saved. Another promise connected to authentic faith is found in proverbs 3: ⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; ⁶ think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths.
 Can we trust the Lord with all our hearts? Yes. Do we? probably not.

 

This lesson on Faith is inspired by the book by Andy Stanley called The Seven Checkpoints: 7 Principles Every Teenager Needs To Know

What is Faith?

Why is faith important?

What does it take to have real faith?

Sometimes there are events that happen in our lives or in the life of someone we love that can take a little chunk out of our faith, or even wipe it clean. So what is faith and why does it waver so much?

To me, faith is believing that God wants what's best for my life. Faith is also knowing that nothing happens without God knowing. When you have a strong faith, you are committed to doing whatever God wants you to do because you believe so strongly that his will is perfect and that in the end, will be the best life for you.

So what does the Bible say about faith?

The book of Hebrews, ch 11, says that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. What is that in English? Faith is the confidence that God is who He says he is and that He will do all that he has promised to do.

Let's say you invited a friend over to dinner. If they do not respond right away, do you have faith that they will come over? You may be hopeful, but you cannot have faith that they will without an affirmative response. The Bible offers us the bridge between wishful thinking and authentic faith.

Noah spent 140 years building an ark because God promised it was going to rain, Abraham left his home and without a destination in mind because God promised to lead him to a new home. Gideon charged into an enemy camp totally outnumbered because God promised him victory. Joshua marched around Jericho until the walls fell down because God promised success.

I believe what makes faith a reality is our perspective. We all have different issues. Most of us have control issues. We do not like to give up control of our lives. We keep praying and acting like God is the genie in a bottle that gives us unlimited wishes. But authentic faith requires us to want only what He wants. As long as we are trying to get something from God, We find it very difficult to surrender our lives to God. 

Oprah and Ellen are telling us to believe in ourselves. To trust our hearts and don’t worry about what anyone else says. This view is very common across our world today and has been widely accepted as truth. But the Bible says differently. In fact, the Bible warns very strongly about where not to place our trust. In Proverbs, it says, He who trusts in his own heart is a fool. Proverbs also says to trust in the Lord with all your heart and in all your ways acknowledge him.

We all need to make the decision for ourselves. Are you going to trust Him?

What is love?

Love has been defined as a feeling, an attitude, or a presentation of feelings. We can define love however we want, but what does it truly mean? In this video, random people were asked this same question.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-9kDodq2x0

Love actually has many parts to it. It can encompass several feelings and attitudes. In this next video, Rob Bell describes some different styles of love. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBhc6_bqP9s 

We have been given the ability to love others in different ways, uniquely. In those relationships, we need to make sure we love others properly. There are other elements involved in how we love, like trust, mutual respect, and even sinful feelings.

In Galatians 5 Paul wrote,
¹³ For you were called to be free, brothers; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. ¹⁴ For the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.^{[a] 15} But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.¹⁶ I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.

Sometimes, what we want to say or feel about someone, is not how the Holy Spirit desires us to. God says love is sacrificially giving up of your own desires to in order to love others fully. Otherwise, we will just destroy each other emotionally.

Taco Night

I was reminded recently at the memorial service of a long time family friend of mine Bob Swain, that we used to have taco nights when I was little. Our families would get together at each other's houses regularly and our dads would see who could eat the hottest peppers and sauces. Crying wasn't necessarily a sign of weakness, but it was a goal to be achieved. Hankies were used for their noses and their foreheads.

I remember hanging out in the houses of each of our friends and playing games with their kids and playing hide and seek outside. I remember that there were certain men that my dad was friends with that must have had permission to discipline me if my parents were not close enough to see me step out of line. Even into my teenage years, if those men spoke to me, I'd listen. Not out of fear, but respect. Those men helped shape me.

Recently, my parents were commended in front of me on how they raised me. Of course, my dad gave honor to God because he knew that like many others, they had no clue what they were doing most the time. (In their humble opinion)

But as I, a young parent, put these pieces together, I see a connection. God gave each parent the authority and responsibility to raise their own children. It is also natural for children to be drawn to other adults as mentors and influencers. As parents, we need to look around in our circles to see what kind of adults we are placing in front of our children as mentors. Are they living their lives in a manner you approve of? Are they hard workers? Are they wise? Do they seek wise counsel? Do they put others needs before their own? Do they look to God for those things? Or, are they selfish? Do they complain a lot? Are they always looking to get something for nothing?  Do they seek the easy way out?

Our kids are going to look to other adults for guidance throughout life. It is our responsibility to give them some solid options.

10 Lies The World Will Try To Cram Down Your Mind! (Part 1)

So this week, Pastor Dan asked if he could teach the youth on Sunday night. He then said he had a message floating in his head that he felt needed to get out. He started with a scavenger hunt to find index cards numbered from 1-10. Then at each location was a poster with common beliefs that our world tries to teach our teens that contradict the Word of God. We only made it through the first 6 locations because of the amount of discussion happening on each topic. So, here is the list.

1.  There are no universal truths.  Every person has their own truth.  We can’t tell someone else that their beliefs are wrong.

2.  Figuring out how to get money is the best use of your time.  Serving others is dumb.

3.  All religions basically say the same thing.  There is no one religion that is true.  Everyone’s religion is right.

4.  Your body is going to live forever.  You don’t need to think about religious stuff.

5.  The Bible is an unreliable way to know the truth.

6.  People evolved from monkeys and weren't created by God.  We are just animals, not special.  We are here by an accident of nature, not by the special design of God.  All life can be traced back to swamps, not to the hand of God.

How Do I Pray?

 

Most often in our society, we have made prayer out to be a request line. After all Psalm 37:4 says Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires.

Luke 11:5-13  He also said to them: “Suppose one of you^[f] has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, ⁶ because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I don’t have anything to offer him.’^{[g] 7} Then he will answer from inside and say, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I have gone to bed. I can’t get up to give you anything.’ ⁸ I tell you, even though he won’t get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his friend’s persistence,^[h] he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

⁹ “So I say to you, keep asking,^[i] and it will be given to you. Keep searching,^[j] and you will find. Keep knocking,^[k] and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. ¹¹ What father among you, if his son^[l] asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give^[m] the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

People take these verses and run with them making it seem that if we pray and ask God for something that He will just provide it. Then when it doesn’t really work out that way, they try to discredit God and the Bible. The 6dont understand that there is more to those verses than just getting what you want out of life. Yes, God want to give us the good things in life, but there are conditions mentioned in the passages.

The point of prayer, I would think, is to be one aspect of communication with God. We have the Bible, which is Gods spoken word to us, and we have prayer, which is our spoken words to Him. A conversation, of sorts. Before we had instant messenger, or texting, we had email. We would send someone an email of thoughts or as an update. Then they might check their email a few later.  Then it might take them a few days to respond. So then 5-7 days later, you'd get a response.  God's Word was written about 3500 years ago, but we can read it now and we can pray to God and the same God who inspired the words in these pages hears our prayer today.  So how can we get a proper idea of how to pray?

The Lord's prayer is like a form letter, you know what those are? A document or a form that you fill out online, it says "first Name here" and you click on it the words go away and the cursor pops up flashing. The Lord's prayer was not meant just to be a recited prayer during Church, it was intended to be a form to follow, insert your real information here.
So let's look at where the Lord's Prayer is mentioned in His Word.

Matthew 6
1“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

5“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us today our daily bread. 12And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And lead us not into temptation,^a but deliver us from the evil one.^b ’
14For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

 1. Declare Gods Greatness - Spend a few minutes focusing on who you're talking to

2. Surrender your will - His agenda must come before mine. If this scares you to say, then you are taking it seriously. Surrender happens when our faith intersects with His faithfulness

3. Acknowledge dependence on Him. - Provision, forgiveness, protection

The purpose of prayer is to bring our wills into alignment with him.